I'm on the cusp of implementing our new Incident Management process and was wondering if any of you had some advice regarding an awareness campaign for it.

The main problem in our service centre has been that pretty much no 2 Operators do things the same way. There is a vague process in place, but the steps are performed in different orders depending on who's performing them. Before anyone says it, I completely agree - it's amazing that we've lasted this long.

All of the staff have ITIL v2 Foundation Certificates, but most took them around 2 years ago and following that nothing was done to actually implement ITIL processes. Most of the staff don't even refer to "Incidents" - "issues", "problems", "faults" are some of the interchangeable terms used.

What I've currently got planned is to provide each of the Operators with their own copy of the process and then a week later have group sessions (of around 4/5 people at a time) where we run through the process and then open the floor for any questions. I'm also going to have the process diagram displayed on each Operator's desk dividing wall as an aide memoir.

Just interested in hearing what you may have done in your own operations when rolling out IM (or other) processes

I should point out, ours is a reasonably small operation - we have 14 1st line Operators, 4 2nd line support staff, 16 field service engineers and around 15 3rd line development staff who are involved in Problem Management and very occasionally act as functional escalation points for incidents.

pk_
Coming wit ha pre-defined process might get staff thinking "there's this guy and he asks us to work in a different way ---- naaah, I don't do that"

I'm consultant specialised in SME environments and try to keep people as much as possible involved, especially in the creation of a process and the procedures. I have good results with small workshops (where I drive discussions, process and procedures in the right direction). This gives staff the feeling of " hey, that's our common new way to work " ... well, at least most of the times.
Try that, might help.
Cheers,
MBU_________________Michael B.

"I can't say it'll be better if it changes, but I can say it has to change to be good"
G.C. Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

while writing it i've tried to involve the operators as much as possible; i've consulted them about the decisions around choosing priorities, what specific information about Incidents they need to log and whether the Incident models are accurate and clear, that sort of thing.

However I've tried to avoid coming up with a process "by committee" because a lot of the suggestions i've had from them are effort saving but bad practice - for example one chap wanted to just resolve all the Incidents, jotting down notes on paper, and then spend the last hour of each shift creating, filling out and closing Incident records.

I was going to be my usual bolshie self and say two things only: one that how you do awareness is unique to your situation and, two, that you are a bit late starting just as you implement.

However, taking the second first, you have already been doing awareness by consulting and talking to those involved, probably right from the beginning.

And that is where you have to start now - by continuing from what you have already done. This, of course, makes it even more uniquely your own and even more difficult for an outsider to help.

Do you need to encourage, explain, exhort and in what proportions? Are staff clear on their roles and responsibilities? Are you trialling it, run-through, training? Is it clear that management authority is established for this?

Oh, and what does your implementation plan say? How's your change management?_________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718